BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


TYPES  OF  PREHISTORIC 
SOUTHWESTERN 
ARCHITECTURE 


BY 
J.  WALTER  FEWKES 


Jtmtrican  fhtiiqttariatt 


TYPES  OF  PREHISTORIC 
SOUTHWESTERN 
ARCHITECTURE 


r        BY 

J.'  WALTER  FEWKES     IS 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY 
FOR  APRIL,  1917. 


WORCESTER,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A. 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY 

1917 


TH»  DATIS  PBKSS 
WOBCK8TKK,  MASS. 


BANCROFT 


TYPES  OF  PREHISTORIC  SOUTHWESTERN 
ARCHITECTURE 

BY  J.  WALTER  FEWKES 

Among  primitive  peoples  the  calendar,  sun  worship 
and  agriculture  are  closely  connected.  When  man 
was  just  emerging  from  the  hunting  or  fishing  stages 
into  early  agricultural  conditions  it  rarely  happened 
that  he  replanted  the  same  fields  year  after  year,  for 
it  was  early  recognized  that  the  land,  however  fertile, 
would  not  yield  good  crops  in  successive  years  but 
should  lie  fallow  one  or  more  years  before  replanting. 
The  primitive  agriculturist  learned  by  experience 
that  a  change  was  necessary  to  insure  good  crops. 
To  effect  this  change  the  agriculturist  moved  his  habi 
tation  and  planted  on  the  sites  where  the  soil  was 
found  to  be  fertile.  There  was  thus  a  continual  shift 
ing  of  planting  places  which  accounts  in  part  for 
frequent  migrations.  In  our  Southwest  this  nomadic 
condition  was  succeeded  by  a  stationary  agricultural 
stage.  Necessary  water  was  supplied  by  irrigation 
which  also  contributed  nourishment  necessary  for  the 
enrichment  of  the  soil.  When  an  agricultural  popu 
lation  is  thus  anchored  to  one  locality,  permanent, 
well-constructed  habitations  are  built  near  farms 
that  are  tilled  year  after  year. 

The  following  ideas  on  the  relation  of  agricultural 
people,  the  calendar  and  sun  worship  were  practically 
adopted  from  Mr.  E.  J.  Payne's  "History  of  the  New 
World  called  America." 

It  is  obligatory  for  the  agriculturist,  especially  when 
the  country  is  arid,  to  have  a  reliable  calendar;  he  must 
know  the  best  time  for  planting  that  the  seeds  may 
germinate,  the  epoch  when  the  rains  are  most  abun- 


dant  that  the  plants  may  grow,  and  the  season  when 
the  hot  sun  may  mature  the  growing  corn.  Agricul 
tural  life  necessitates  an  exact  calendar. 

Several  methods  are  used  by  the  primitive  agri 
culturist  to  determine  the  time  for  planting,  the  most 
reliable  of  which  is  the  position  of  the  sun  and  moon 
on  the  horizon  rising  or  setting.  The  movements  of 
the  latter,  especially  the  phases  of  the  new  moon,  al 
though  important,  do  not  serve  as  the  best  basis  of 
the  annual  calendar.  The  time  of  the  year  cannot 
be  told  by  observations  of  the  moon.  The  phases  of 
the  moon  play  a  certain  r61e  among  agricultural 
people,  since  this  planet  takes  a  subordinate  place  in 
determining  the  calendar.  The  positions  of  the  sun, 
or  the  points  of  its  rising  and  setting  on  the  horizon 
and  its  altitude  at  midday,  afforded  the  primitive 
agriculturist  data  that  could  be  relied  upon  from  year 
to  year  to  determine  the  season.  The  position  of  the 
sun  at  midsummer  and  midwinter,  rising  or  setting,  is 
associated  with  most  important  events;  the  winter 
solstice  indicates  the  time  when  the  fields  should  be 
prepared  for  cultivation;  when  the  irrigating  ditches 
should  be  cleared  out  and  prepared  for  planting. 
We  consequently  find  the  winter  solstice,  which  occurs 
at  the  close  of  December,  is  practically  set  aside  by 
all  agricultural  people  as  an  occasion  of  a  great  festival 
in  which  sun-worship  is  dominant.  At  this  time  we 
also  find  a  complicated  ceremony,  the  object  of  which 
is  to  draw  back  the  sun  and  prepare  the  people  for  the 
work  before  them.  Around  this  midwinter  festival 
were  crowded  rites  of  the  purification  of  the  earth  from 
evil  influences  of  winter,  a  dramatic  personation  of  the 
return  of  the  sun  god,  preliminary  to  the  call  to  the 
husbandman  to  begin  his  work.  The  planting  itself 
occurs  somewhat  later,  or  when  the  sun  reaches  the 
vernal  equinox,  the  determination  of  which  is  less 
important  than  the  solstice. 

When  agricultural  man  had  discovered  a  reliable 
calendar  and  was  able  to  definitely  determine  the 


time  for  planting,  growth,  and  harvesting  of  his  crops, 
his  life  became  still  more  rigidly  fixed  in  sedentary  con 
ditions;  he  no  longer  was  a  hunter  or  shepherd;  he 
ceased  to  have  a  nomadic  tendency.  The  conscious 
ness  of  being  able  to  rely  upon  a  definite  food  supply 
expresses  itself  in  the  art  of  building.  He  is  led  to 
construct  more  durable  habitations.  Successful  agri 
culture,  stable  architecture,  and  a  reliable  calendar 
are  thus  closely  connected.  The  most  successful 
agriculture  in  aboriginal  North  America  is  found  in 
regions  where  knowledge  of  the  calendar  was  most 
highly  developed.  Early  efforts  to  perfect  the  calen 
dar  by  studies  of  the  sun  intensified  sun  worship. 
The  most  highly  developed  expressions  of  solar  wor 
ship  as  well  as  the  best  constructed  masonry  on  the 
American  continent  are  associated  with  the  highest 
development  of  the  calendar.  There  can  be  adduced 
no  better  illustration  than  the  masonry  of  Peruvian 
temples  which  compares  favorably  with  any  in  the 
world.  The  surface  ornamentation  of  these  buildings 
is  not  as  elaborate  as  in  those  of  Central  America,  but 
there  are  few  examples  of  masonry  in  the  Old  World 
with  stones  more  accurately  fitted  together,  the  walls 
more  enduring — a  remarkable  fact  when  we  consider 
that  the  people  who  built  these  colossal  structures 
in  the  New  World  were  unfamiliar  with  the 
metals,  iron  and  steel.  Sun  worship  is  the  basis  of 
the  ancient  Peruvian  culture  expressed  by  these  extra 
ordinary  buildings.  Although  our  knowledge  of  Peru 
vian  calendric  signs  is  not  as  accurate  as  of  that  of 
Central  America,  all  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the 
calendar  of  the  Incas  was  not  inferior  to  that  of 
the  Mayas. 

In  prehistoric  North  America  we  find  remains  of 
buildings  constructed  of  masonry  quite  equal  to  that 
of  the  same  epoch  in  the  Old  World.  This  may  be 
illustrated  by  reference  to  the  cliff-dwellers'  towers  in 
our  Southwest.  If  some  of  the  towers  of  Sardinia 
were  placed  side  by  side  with  those  of  southwestern 


Colorado,  any  impartial  observer  would  say  that  the 
masonry  in  the  latter  was  equal  to  that  in  the  former. 
The  megalithic  dolmens  of  England  exhibit  no  walls 
superior  in  masonry  to  massive  walls  in  the  mountain 
canyons  of  Utah  and  Arizona  constructed  before  the 
advent  of  the  whites.  In  other  words  it  is  evident 
that  the  architecture  of  a  people  is  not  wholly  an  in 
dex  of  stage  of  culture.  If  the  prehistoric  aborigines 
of  our  Southwest  be  judged  by  buildings  we  may  say 
they  had  progressed  in  historic  development  into  a 
stage  attained  by  nations  more  advanced  because 
they  were  acquainted  with  metals. 

The  prehistoric  people  of  our  Southwest  called  pueb 
los  and  cliff-dwellers  constructed  many  different 
forms  of  rooms  which  can  be  compared  and  reduced 
to  a  few  types.  It  is  the  object  of  the  following  pages 
to  examine  the  morphology  of  these  buildings. 

It  will  be  found  on  examination  that  these  prehis 
toric  buildings  were  constructed  on  certain  universal 
lines,  reproducing  with  startling  similarity  types 
which  are  world-wide.  It  will  also  be  found  that 
habitations  or  buildings  devoted  to  certain  utilitarian 
purposes  have  one  form,  while  sacred  buildings  have 
another,  following  a  law  geographically  widespread. 
Man  shares  with  the  animal  a  desire  for  protection 
for  his  family  or  food  accumulated  or  awaiting  con 
sumption.  This  holds  true  among  agricultural  peo 
ples  whose  food  is  cereal  and  can  be  stored  indefinitely 
or  prepared  for  use  when  necessary.  It  is  not  neces 
sary  to  suppose  that  man  learned  the  habit  of  storing 
food  from  bees  and  squirrels ;  the  same  needs  produced 
the  same  habits.  The  earliest  storage  places  adopted 
by  man  were  caves,  trunks  of  trees  or  pits  dug  in  the 
earth,  the  first  mentioned  being  the  most  common. 
The  first  step  taken  to  improve  this  storage  place  was 
the  construction  of  a  wall  to  close  the  entrance  to  the 
cave  or  pit.  A  further  modification,  practically  an 
expansion  of  this  simple  idea,  led  to  the  construction 
of  an  elaborate  dwelling  having  rooms  specialized  for 


different  economical  purposes  within  the  shelter  of  the 
cave. 

This  same  idea  of  protection  led  to  another  line  of 
development  in  which  the  cave  is  wanting.  The  con 
struction  of  a  stone  cairn  in  the  open  would  also  serve 
for  protection  of  the  food  supply.  Such  a  building, 
erected  simply  for  storage,  naturally  drew  about  it 
subordinate  rooms  for  dwellings,  at  first  temporary  in 
structure  but  later,  as  ability  in  stone-working  im 
proved,  permanent  buildings  or  community-houses  of 
durable  material.  This  second  type  of  prehistoric 
building,  erected  independent  of  caves,  evolved  along 
lines  different  from  the  first;  in  forms  of  construction 
the  two  types  are  similar,  but  they  differ  as  to  sites; 
one  became  a  cliff  or  cave  dwelling;  the  other,  what  is 
called  a  village  or  pueblo. 

Consider  another  line  of  development.  The  build 
ings  we  have  already  considered  were  erected  primarily 
for  the  preservation  and  protection  of  material  pos 
sessions.  Man,  in  whatever  stage,  regards  it  as  neces 
sary  to  construct  a  building  for  religious  purposes; 
in  many  instances  this  structure  is  nothing  more  than 
a  row  of  upright  stones  enclosing  an  area  devoted  to 
his  gods.  No  roof  was  considered  necessary  since  the 
objects  of  worship  were  practically  forces  of  nature. 
As  time  went  on,  priests  or  congregations  gathered  to 
perform  rites  within  the  circular  or  other  areas,  or  in 
their  neighborhood.  These  ceremonies  rendered  se 
crecy  necessary.  A  priesthood  developed  with  a 
systematic  ritual,  which  had  to  be  hidden  from  the 
eyes  of  the  inquisitive  by  roofs  and  side  walls, 
thus  forming  a  building,  from  which  developed  the 
temple  or  sacred  room.  Subsequently  other  buildings 
were  annexed  for  habitations  of  priests  or  laymen. 
A  condition  of  this  kind  occurs  in  our  prehistoric 
Southwestern  architecture.  The  sanctuary  in  this 
region  is  a  well-constructed  circular  building,  of  pecu 
liar  type.  It  was  not  a  dwelling  but  a  place  of  cere 
monious  worship.  Habitations  distinct  from  these 


8 

ceremonial  rooms  had  walls  so  perishable  that  traces 
of  them  are  hard  to  find,  the  sanctuary  walls  alone 
remaining  as  an  indication  of  the  building  art  of  that 
period.  A  more  advanced  stage  along  this  line  of 
evolution  was  the  addition  of  rooms  with  permanent 
walls  to  the  base  of  the  sanctuary,  by  which  a  union 
of  two  different  kinds  of  buildings,  sacred  and  secular, 
was  brought  about.  These  three  lines  of  architec 
tural  development  in  our  prehistoric  Southwest  verged 
in  a  parallel  development  into  the  same  form,  all 
starting  from  the  rudest  structure  and  culminating  in 
an  almost  identical  type,  one  the  cave  habitation,  the 
other  the  storage  room  with  its  annex,  and  the  third 
the  sacred  building  or  sanctuary,  around  which  are 
clustered  rooms  for  secular  purposes.  A  combina 
tion  of  the  three  types,  producing  a  composite  cluster, 
gives  us  what  is  called  the  terraced  community  house 
or  pueblo. 

The  term  "pueblo,"  signifying  a  village  or  town, 
was  applied  by  Spanish  explorers  to  Indian  villages 
in  our  Southwest  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Certain  other  collections  of  houses,  to  which  the 
word  "rancherias"  (ranches)  was  applied,  were  also 
mentioned,  the  distinction  between  the  two  being 
that  the  buildings  of  the  latter  were  more  widely  scat 
tered.  At  present  we  speak  of  pueblo  and  pueblo 
culture  in  a  more  exact  way,  and  in  a  scientific  dis 
cussion  of  the  origin  of  this  culture  it  is  necessary  to 
restrict  the  Spanish  terms,  or  to  define  a  pueblo  from 
a  cultural  point  of  view.  This  leads  to  an  enumera 
tion  of  distinctive  architectural  features  which  char 
acterize  the  two  types. 

The  Spaniards,  giving  little  attention  to  ruins  in  the 
country  through  which  their  route  lay,  confined  the 
term  "pueblo"  to  inhabited  towns.  These  early 
travelers  found  the  majority  of  these  in  a  limited 
area  along  the  Rio  Grande  or  along  the  Little  Colorado 
and  in  the  mountains  of  what  is  now  northern  Arizona. 
There  were  wide  expanses  of  country  not  visited  by 


9 

the  Spaniards,  which  we  now  know  had  at  that  time 
ruined  buildings  indicative  of  a  past  population,  that 
are  similar  in  form  to  those  inhabited.  We  find  on 
scientific  examination  evidence  that  the  life  in  them 
was  higher  in  development  than  in  the  villages  seen 
by  the  explorers.  Manifestly  our  subject  must  be 
so  treated  that  all  pueblos,  whether  uninhabited  or 
inhabited,  should  be  taken  into  account  in  morpho 
logical  studies.  On  comparison  of  ruined  pueblos  with 
those  inhabited  in  the  sixteenth  century  certain 
identities  in  form  are  revealed,  but  there  are  found  also 
radical  differences  showing  degrees  of  culture.  Indi 
cations  exist  that  certain  arts  of  the  later  pueblos 
have  degenerated:  the  masonry  is  not  so  good  and 
pottery,  textiles,  and  other  manufactured  articles  are 
interior. 

The  accounts  given  by  early  Spanish  chroniclers 
afford  scanty  information  on  details  of  arts,  and  his 
torical  documents  are  correspondingly  imperfect. 
In  consideration  of  the  subject  from  the  point  of  view 
of  chronology,  our  knowledge  must  be  derived,  not 
from  previous  histories  but  from  archeological  re 
mains  that  are  fortunately  very  abundant  through 
the  whole  region. 

The  simplest  type  of  pueblo  building,  called  the 
unit  type,  consists  of  one  or  more  rectangular  rooms 
and  a  circular  chamber.  This  form  passes  imper 
ceptibly  into  the  linear  type,  a  row  of  single  rooms 
united  by  the  side  of  one  circular  room  midway  in 
length.  The  linear  type  naturally  may  have  single 
or  multiple  rooms,  or  it  may  be  composed  of  one  or 
more  rows  parallel  with  each  other,  the  doorways 
opening  on  the  same  side  or  in  the  same  direction. 
When  the  lines  of  rooms  are  double,  and  the  doorways 
of  each  row  open  in  opposite  directions,  we  may 
designate  this  the  double  linear  having  external  door 
ways.  Linear  ruins  may  be  one  or  more  stories  high; 
when  there  is  more  than  one  story,  doors  or  lateral 
openings  are  generally  wanting.  On  the  ground 


10 

floor,  which  is  entered  from  the  roof,  the  superimposed 
rooms  have  lateral  passageways  from  the  roof  of  the 
lower  story. 

A  double  row  of  buildings  may  be  set  in  such  a  way 
that  the  doorways  face  each  other,  or  four  such  rows 
may  form  a  rectangle  enclosing  a  court,  which  often 
lacks  one  side.  Another  type  has  the  pyramidal 
form,  made  up  of  rooms  crowded  together  with  the 
superimposed  stories  opening  in  all  directions. 

Wholly  different  in  form  from  the  various  linear 
types  above  enumerated  are  the  circular  buildings 
enclosing  a  central  court  on  which  the  doorways  of 
the  lowest  story  open,  and  which  those  of  the  upper 
stories  face. 

Pueblos  both  ancient  and  modern  can  be  placed 
in  one  or  another  of  the  above-mentioned  types, 
although  in  some  cases  two  of  these  types  may  be 
combined,  making  a  composite  building  reaching  a 
considerable  size.  In  whatever  type  the  pueblo  is 
placed,  the  circular-form  room  also  exists,  either 
enclosed  in  the  rows  or  free  from  the  rows  of  secular 
rectangular  chambers.  The  pyramidal,  rectangular, 
and  linear  types  are  comparatively  modern,  having 
persisted  to  the  present  day,  when  many  are  inhabited ; 
the  circular  type  is  confined  wholly  to  ancient  times 
and  is  no  longer  inhabited.  Open  pueblos  are  inde 
pendent  of  cliffs  as  distinguished  from  those  dependent 
or  those  built  within  caves.  Dependent  and  in 
dependent  buildings  are  morphologically  the  same, 
but  the  dependent  or  so-called  cliff  pueblos  were  not 
inhabited  at  the  advent  of  the  Europeans. 

An  examination  of  the  main  features  of  the  groups 
above  mentioned  reveals  certain  common  features, 
an  enumeration  of  which  still  further  defines  the 
pueblo  type.  All  have  both  the  terraced  and  the 
community  form.  They  are  all  accompanied  by  a 
sacred  room  of  circular  form  compactly  enclosed  in 
the  mass  of  building  or  built  separate  from  it.  If  we 
examine  the  distribution  geographically  of  the  pueblo 


11 

Bancroft  Library 

type,  ancient  and  modern,  we  find"  it  limited  to  the 
area  including  the  southern  parts  of  Colorado,  Utah, 
and  the  greater  part  of  New  Mexico,  its  highest  devel 
opment  occurring  in  the  mountains.  It  is  preemi 
nently  limited  to  a  plateau  region,  and  theoretically 
we  may  suppose  that  it  owes  its  peculiarities  to  the 
characteristic  physiographic  conditions  of  this  en 
vironment.  If  we  consider  this  type  chronologically 
we  find  the  oldest  and  best  examples  situated  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  area;  the  evidence  is  good  that 
influence  from  that  nucleus  extended  west  and  south, 
the  architecture  as  we  recede  from  the  place  of  origin 
becoming  inferior  or  losing  some  of  its  essential  fea 
tures,  probably  on  account  of  contact  with  unrelated 
peoples.  This  modification  and  the  accompanying 
departure  from  the  type  are  especially  marked  in 
extensions  that  came  in  contact  with  people  who  con 
structed  rooms  compactly  united,  from  southern 
Arizona,  where  environmental  conditions  show  a 
great  contrast  to  the  mountain  region  in  which  the 
pueblo  originated.  The  plains  bordering  the  Gila 
and  its  tributaries  are  low  and  level,  covered  with  a 
vegetation  wholly  different  from  that  of  the  mountain 
canyons  in  which  pueblo  buildings  originated.  Cli 
matically  southern  Arizona  is  very  warm  throughout 
the  year;  the  mountains  of  Colorado  are  covered  with 
snow  from  November  to  March,  inclusive.  These 
conditions  have  led  in  the  former  region  to  the  separa 
tion  of  the  dwellings  or  a  more  open  life  of  the  aborig 
ines;  the  rooms  are  larger  and  not  crowded  together 
as  in  pueblos;  the  material  used  in  their  construction 
is  also  different;  stone  is  not  available;  its  absence  led 
to  the  use  of  clay  and  mud  as  the  only  materials  out 
of  which  man  could  construct  his  dwellings.  Another 
powerful  influence  created  architectural  modifications 
in  these  two  regions.  In  the  mountains  the  village 
builders  were  beset  on  all  sides  by  hostiles  or  nomads 
bent  on  plunder.  It  was  here  necessary  for  man  to 
construct  his  building  with  a  view  to  defense  by  con- 


12 

centration  of  the  rooms.  The  level  plains  of  southern 
Arizona  and  the  rivers  with  a  constant  flow  of  water 
brought  about  irrigation  along  the  Gila,  thus  making 
possible  a  larger  population.  All  these  conditions, 
reflected  in  the  character  of  the  buildings  in  the 
southern  region,  as  contrasted  with  the  northern,  have 
greatly  modified  the  culture  and  sociological  condi 
tions  of  the  aborigines  of  the  two  localities.  In  their 
extension  their  boundaries  met  each  other  and  their 
contact  has  led  to  types  of  buildings  with  characters 
of  both.  In  one  locality,  Hopi,  the  circular  kiva  has 
disappeared,  and  a  rectangular  room  has  taken  its 
place.  Both  Hopi  and  Zuni  pueblos  have  descend 
ants  of  the  ancestral  clans  from  the  Gila  still  surviving, 
and  there  we  find  the  pueblo  type  with  rectangular 
kivas  both  enclosed  in  house  masses  and  separated 
from  them. 

Offshoots  of  the  mountain  or  pueblo  culture  follow 
ing  down  the  San  Juan  River  penetrated  to  Hopi  and 
settled  at  Walpi,  shortly  after  which  they  were  joined 
by  clans  from  Little  Colorado  bringing  Gila  culture, 
as  is  recounted  in  legends  still  existing.  The  mountain 
culture  introduced  the  terraced  form  of  building  and 
the  kiva  free  from  the  house  masses.  But  this  kiva 
has  a  rectangular  form  due  either  to  the  configuration 
of  the  mesa  top  or  to  influences  from  the  south,  where 
the  sacred  room  is  rectangular  and  enclosed  by  dwell 
ings.  In  a  case  of  Zuni  we  have  the  plain  type  or 
southern  contingent  predominating,  the  original  set 
tlement  at  Zuni  having  been  made  by  clans  from  the 
far  south,  which  were  later  joined  and  modified  by 
those  from  the  north.  Here  we  have  at  the  present 
day  the  sacred  room  of  rectangular  shape  hidden  away 
among  the  dwellings.  This  was  a  secondary  condi 
tion  probably  brought  about  by  the  influence  of  Cath 
olic  missionaries,  who  forced  the  Zuni  to  abandon  their 
sacred  room  in  the  courts  of  the  town,  and  resort  to 
secrecy  to  perform  the  forbidden  rites.  Both  Hopi 
and  Zuni  show  in  their  architecture  the  influence  of 


13 

two  component  stocks  or  peoples,  a  fact  more  strik 
ingly  brought  out  in  their  religious  ceremonials. 

The  prehistoric  center  of  pueblo  culture  origin  is 
situated  many  miles  distant  from  the  area  now  inhab 
ited  by  its  survivals.  When  the  Spanish  travelers 
first  came  in  touch  with  this  unique  condition  of  life, 
its  center  of  origin  was  no  longer  inhabited.  Legen 
dary  accounts  still  survive  in  the  modern  pueblos 
that  they  came  from  the  north;  our  main  source  of 
information  or  proof  of  the  truth  of  these  legends  is 
the  character  of  architecture  and  pottery  obtained 
from  the  northern  ruins,  aided  by  what  may  be  gath 
ered  from  the  modified  architecture  of  the  inhabited 
pueblos,  or  from  historical  documents. 

It  is  a  universal  characteristic  of  primitive  men 
that  the  most  enduring  and  best-constructed  buildings 
are  those  devoted  to  worship.  We  find,  for  instance, 
throughout  the  Old  World  that  the  prehistoric  struc 
tures  of  this  kind  which  have  survived  as  monuments 
of  the  past  are  temples,  either  in  the  form  of  rude 
monoliths  or  imposing  buildings,  the  habitations  of 
their  builders  having  long  since  disappeared,  as  they 
were  built  of  perishable  material  and  their  sites  can 
now  be  detected  only  by  low  mounds. 

Temples,  however,  were  more  lasting  and  work  on 
them  was  cumulative;  each  generation  improved  on  its 
predecessor,  and  as  they  were  built  of  stone  the  addi 
tions  of  successive  generations  were  permanent,  and 
remained  as  an  index  of  past  civilization.  The  same 
is  true  among  prehistoric  pueblos  of  North  America. 
They  also  erected  dual  buildings:  one  being  a  perish 
able  habitation;  the  other  the  permanent  religious 
building. 

Let  us  consider  the  chronological  evolution  of  these 
two  types  of  architecture.  In  the  very  earliest  con 
dition  the  primitive  people  of  the  Southwest  construct 
ed  a  massive-walled  building  to  serve  for  the  perform 
ance  of  their  rites  and  ceremonies.  Each  social  group 
had  its  own  sanctuary,  which  we  now  recognize  as 


14 

the  kiva,  commonly  built  in  the  form  of  towers  scat 
tered  throughout  the  mountainous  regions  of  Utah 
and  Colorado.  As  is  customary  with  similar  religious 
edifices,  we  find  these,  as  a  rule,  perched  on  the  tops 
of  high  cliffs,  not  for  outlooks,  but  for  conspicuous 
buildings  for  refuge  of  the  neighboring  population. 
In  ancient  Greece  we  find  the  temples  of  Cecrops, 
the  ancient  deity  of  Athens,  on  an  Acropolis,  and  tow 
ering  above  Corinth  is  the  Acrocorinth.  Towers 
almost  identical  with  those  of  Colorado  occur  in  dif 
ferent  localities  in  Europe.  We  find  them,  for  exam 
ple,  in  Ireland,  in  Spain,  in  Sardinia,  and  in  Corsica, 
where  they  have  received  a  different  name,  but  are 
always  associated  with  the  very  earliest  inhabitants 
of  those  localities.  In  Peru  we  find  the  problematical 
chulpas.  The  function  of  these  towers  in  both  the 
Old  and  the  New  World  has  been  a  bone  of  contention 
among  archeologists.  The  best  explanation  that  has 
been  advanced  for  Old  World  towers  is  that  they  are 
defensive  and  religious  structures;  the  towers  of  the 
New  World  may  have  had  a  similar  use,  as  they  are 
alike  in  form.  In  other  words,  we  may  suppose  that 
they  also  are  religious  structures,  but  we  can  add  in 
support  of  that  theory  evidence  not  available  in 
Europe,  for  we  find  that  the  form  of  the  tower  is  iden 
tical  with  that  of  the  sacred  room  or  kiva,  and  that  it 
has  survived  to  the  present  time  as  a  special  chamber 
for  worship. 

Having  then  determined  that  we  can  regard  the 
oldest  form  of  pueblo  building  as  a  religious  structure, 
let  us  pass  to  the  probable  steps  in  the  evolution 
from  this  early  condition  into  the  highest  development 
of  that  strictly  American  type  of  habitation.  It  is 
evident,  if  the  tower  be  looked  on  as  the  sanctuary 
of  the  clan,  that  the  existence  of  two  or  more  clans 
united  would  necessitate  the  same  number  of  towers, 
a  condition  which  we  find  repeated  in  the  areas  under 
consideration.  Granted  that  the  first  step  in  the 
evolution  of  the  pueblo  would  be  the  union  of  the 


15 

secular  with  the  sacred  room,  this  might  be  accom 
plished  either  by  adding  the  tower  to  the  group  of 
dwellings,  if  the  latter  were  situated  in  a  cave,  or  by 
moving  the  habitations  out  of  the  cave  and  annexing 
them  to  the  base  of  the  tower.  Both  of  these  methods 
seem  to  have  been  adopted,  resulting  on  the  one  hand 
in  cliff-dwellings,  and  on  the  other  in  communal 
buildings  in  the  open  or  on  top  of  a  plateau.  Sub 
sequent  stages  in  the  evolution  of  the  pueblo  consist 
in  the  enlargement  because  of  the  growth  of  the  clan 
of  the  outlines  of  the  dwelling  clustered  around  the 
base  of  the  tower  until  subsequently  contiguous  groups 
joined,  making  one  village,  composed  of  as  many 
clans  as  there  are  architectural  units.  The  sacred 
building  lost  its  predominance  in  this  enlargement, 
and  the  tower  passed  without  morphological  changes 
into  the  kiva.  We  can  trace  all  these  modifications 
in  the  canyons  and  plateaus  of  southwestern  Colorado. 
Sociological  advance  goes  hand  in  hand  with  archi 
tectural  complication.  In  the  beginning  the  number  of 
social  units  is  indicated  by  the  number  of  kivas;  the 
next  stage  is  the  diminution  in  relative  number  of  sacred 
rooms  and  other  changes  which  appear  in  the  relative 
size  of  the  kivas.  The  several  social  units  brought  in 
such  intimate  contact  naturally  evolved  a  system  of 
worship  reflecting  that  union.  This  appears  most 
clearly  in  the  formation  of  a  fraternity  of  priests  to 
perform  the  ceremony  resulting  from  consolidation, 
which  leads  to  the  abandonment  of  kivas  rendered 
unnecessary,  or  to  the  fusion  of  several  into  one,  and 
the  enlargement  of  those  remaining  to  accommodate  the 
fraternity  composed  of  men  of  several  social  units. 
This  enlargement  is  shown  at  Far  View  House,  a 
pueblo  lately  excavated  in  the  Mesa  Verde  National 
Park,  Colorado.  The  total  population  of  this  pueblo 
was  probably  as  large  as  that  of  Cliff  Palace,  but 
whereas  in  this  cliff  dwelling  we  find  twenty-three 
sacred  rooms,  in  Far  View  House  there  are  but  four, 
one  of  which  (the  central)  is  four  times  as  large  as  any 


16 

in  Cliff  Palace.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  the  central  kiva 
in  the  pueblo  is  more  centrally  placed  than  the  others, 
when  we  remember  that  it  was  probably  the  oldest, 
and  was  the  first  settled,  and  in  subsequent  growth 
of  the  village  remained  the  predominant  one  of  the 
group. 

Following  the  lines  of  social  evolution  and  archi 
tectural  types  considered  in  the  preceding  pages,  we 
come  now  to  a  classification  of  buildings  in  the  South 
west.  Passing  over  the  earliest  expression  of  archi 
tecture,  where  a  hut  or  dugout  shows  few  peculiar 
features  but  practically  is  universal  among  a  semi- 
nomadic  people,  we  come  to  durable  houses  built  of 
clay  or  stone.  Even  in  these  small  buildings  we  rec 
ognize  two  types  of  rooms — circular  and  rectangular. 
We  find  two  distinct  types  of  village  communities,  one 
occupying  the  area  extending  from  Utah  to  the  inhab 
ited  pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande.  This  group  may  be 
known  in  prehistoric  culture  by  circular  ruins  and 
circular  kivas.  Here  probably  arose  the  original 
terraced  form  of  building.  The  purest  expression  of 
its  architecture  occurs  in  cliff-dwellings  like  Cliff 
Palace  and  Spruce-tree  House  in  the  Mesa  Verde 
National  Park,  but  its  extensions  west  and  south  are 
modified  as  the  distance  from  the  place  of  origin 
increases. 

The  second  type  of  buildings  in  the  Southwest  arose 
in  the  Gila  valley,  and  is  best  illustrated  by  Casa 
Grande  in  southern  Arizona.  From  this  nucleus 
extensions  of  architectural  forms  were  carried  north 
ward  and  eastward  to  the  pueblos  now  inhabited  by 
Hopi  and  Zufii  Indians.  A  characteristic  feature  of 
this  type  is  the  massive-walled  buildings  surrounded 
by  a  rectangular  wall  or  compound.  The  circular 
kiva  and  circular  ruin  do  not  exist  in  present  forms  of 
this  type.  Ruins  in  southern  Arizona,  belonging  to 
this  type,  often  have  very  much  modified  forms, 
especially  as  the  type  extended  northward  and  came 
in  contact  with  extensions  of  the  pueblo  culture. 


17 

Architectural  characters  and  other  features  of  this 
type  show  marked  affinities  with  the  corresponding 
culture  of  prehistoric  peoples  of  Mexico. 

The  mythology  and  ritual  of  the  people  in  this  area 
are  more  closely  related  to  Mexican  than  to  northern 
or  pueblo  culture.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  many 
examples,  of  which  one  instance  may  be  taken.  One 
of  the  most  marked  peculiarities  of  the  prehistoric 
culture  in  this  zone  is  the  elaborate  worship  of  a  su 
pernatural  being  called  the  Horned  Serpent.1  The 
Horned  Serpent  cult  was  introduced  into  Hopiland 
from  the  Gila  and  is  associated  with  the  sky-god,  whose 
symbol  is  the  sun.  Evidences  of  the  widespread  in 
fluence  of  this  cult  in  prehistoric  times  is  shown  by 
figures  of  this  being  found  on  pottery  all  the  way  from 
Hopi  to  the  Mexican  plateau.  Among  the  Maya 
and  Aztec,  when  Horned  Snake  worship  was  perhaps 
the  most  complicated  anywhere  in  pre-Columbian 
America,  it  was,  as  it  is  at  Hopi,  intimately  associa 
ted  with  sun-worship.  The  Horned  and  Plumed 
Serpent  figures  adorn  many  prehistoric  buildings  of 
Mexico,  and  occur  in  all  the  codices  of  the  Maya. 
Here  we  have  the  symbol  not  originally  regarded  as 
serpents.  Kukulcan,  or  Quetzalcoatl,  were  but  benefi 
cent  beings  who  taught  the  ancients  agriculture  and 
other  arts,  but  whose  benign  presence  was  banished 
through  the  machinations  of  a  sorcerer.  The  striking 
similarities  in  the  objective  symbolism  of  the  Plumed 
Serpent  of  Mexican  mythology  and  the  Hopi  Horned 
Serpent  have  been  shown  elsewhere;  the  ceremonies 
in  which  his  effigy  is  used  in  the  Hopi  ritual  are  prac 
tically  connected  with  sun-worship,  and  were  intro 
duced  from  the  south.  Wherever  the  influence  of  the 
architectural  type  above  considered  is  detected  we 
find  evidences  of  Horned  Serpent  cult. 

The  most  important  rite  at  Walpi  in  which  idols  of 
this  being  are  used  occurs  at  the  winter  solstice  and 

1  In  the  Snake  Dances  of  the  pueblo  region,  we  have  more  striking  evidence  of  an 
cestor  worship.  The  ceremonials  in  which  the  Horned  Snake  idols  appear  show  a 
more  elaborate  sun-worship. 


18 

the  vernal  equinox,  and  are  always  connected  with  a 
highly  developed  sun-worship.  These  appear  as 
effigies,  which  in  one  ceremonial  drama  are  carried 
by  a  being  personating  the  sun;  in  other  dramatic  rites 
they  are  thrust  through  openings  in  a  screen  on  which 
sun  emblems  are  painted.  An  idol  of  the  Horned 
Serpent,  made  of  the  giant  cactus,  a  plant  abundant 
in  the  Gila  valley,  is  carried  by  the  chief  of  the  Sun 
priests'  ceremony  celebrated  in  midwinter.  Numer 
ous  other  examples  of  the  association  of  the  sun  and 
the  Horned  Serpent  in  the  solar  worship  of  the  Hopi 
have  been  elsewhere  described  and  might  be  mentioned 
to  prove  that  the  religious  conception  back  of  the 
Horned  Serpent  cult  is  the  symbolical  representation 
of  a  nature  power  of  the  sky  or  the  sun.  The  concep 
tion  typified  by  the  Horned  Snake  cult  of  the  Hopi 
and  that  of  the  Plumed  Snake  of  Mexico  is  the  same; 
that  symbols  of  this  being  occur  on  prehistoric  objects 
found  in  the  region  stretching  from  the  Hopi  country 
far  into  Central  America  cannot  be  questioned. 
Whether  one  was  derived  from  the  other  or  both  were 
independently  evolved  is  another  question. 

The  ancient  people  of  the  pueblo  type  widespread 
throughout  New  Mexico  and  Colorado  likewise  used 
in  their  ceremonials  a  Plumed  Serpent  symbol,  which 
has  been  identified  as  the  Great  Horned  Snake.  The 
cult  of  this  being  is  also  associated  with  sun-worship, 
but  as  the  little  we  know  of  the  symbolism  of  this 
being  is  derived  from  the  winter  solstice  ceremony  at 
the  Tewa  pueblo  Hano  and  a  few  pictographs  or 
paintings  on  Tewa  pottery,  it  is  not  possible  to  hazard 
a  conjecture  regarding  its  teaching  on  culture  deriva 
tion.  The  evidence,  so  far  as  it  goes,  supports  the 
theory  that  a  Sun  Serpent  cult  like  that  of  ancient 
Mexico  exists  in  our  Southwest  today  in  a  much  more 
primitive  form. 


